


Babysitting for Dummies

by samiam17



Category: Now You See Me (Movies)
Genre: dylan is the adoptive dad, he has no idea what he's doing, horsemen as kids, merritt is a babysitter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 06:58:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7704865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samiam17/pseuds/samiam17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Babysitting was not on the top of Merritt McKinney’s job list. Heck, it wasn’t in the top ten, top twenty, top fifty, and so on. Yet, he found himself up bright and early at an interview for a job he truly didn’t want.</p><p>The story of how Merritt comes to babysit Dylan Rhode's adoptive children: Danny, Henley, and Jack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Babysitting for Dummies

Babysitting was not on the top of Merritt McKinney’s job list. Heck, it wasn’t in the top ten, top twenty, top fifty, and so on. Yet, he found himself up bright and early at an interview for a job he truly didn’t want.

Of course, he didn’t really have a choice in the matter. He had been fired by basically every shop in the strip mall downtown: the pretzel shop, the Apple store, the Famous Footwear, even the freaking American Eagle store (which had been a personal low for him). Apparently stores don’t like employees coming in late, talking back to customers, taking money from the cash register, and throwing up on window displays, for these were all reasons Merritt had been fired in the past.

But he needed money. Oh god how he needed money. He wanted to move out right when he turned eighteen, but buying an apartment was a distant dream due to the flimsy savings he had started two years ago- two years he spent mostly unemployed and not earning much at all.

So now, with his eighteenth birthday a mere six months away he needed to start seriously earning cash if he wanted to actually get away from his psycho parents and backstabbing twin brother.

And that’s why he found himself sitting on a high stool at a kitchen counter across from the town sheriff who wanted him to babysit his kids every afternoon.

“Danny is the oldest.” Dylan Rhodes told Merritt, “He’s going into sixth grade and he thinks he’s an adult. He’s not exactly happy about getting a sitter, but there’s no way he can stay home alone with the rest of them all summer.”

Merritt nodded, things sounding more complicated with every new word Mr. Rhodes uttered.

“And then there’s Henley.” Dylan smiled, “She’s the sweetest little girl. She loves animals and playing dress up and painting. She’ll be going into third grade. She’ll probably want you to bake chocolate chip cookies every day.”

“Okay…?” Merritt had no idea what to say so he stuck with a, “I like chocolate chip cookies too.” and proceeded to feel like a moron.

Dylan went on, “Finally, there’s Jack. I feel awful that I’m going to need to be leaving him.”

Merritt furrowed his brow, “Why’s that?”

“Just because he’s only thirteen months old.” Dylan said casually.

Merritt gulped, eyes bulging out of his head. Sure he’d watched his little cousins every once an a while, but caring for three complicated kids, one of them being practically a baby? That was completely out of Merritt’s league.

Money or not, he couldn’t handle this.

The meeting was going smoothly for the first twenty minutes. Merritt knew how to use a dishwasher and washer and dryer for clothes. He said that putting the kids to bed would be no big deal and he agreed to Sheriff Rhode’s rule of only an hour of TV time a day, max. He listened when Dylan told him about Henley’s epi pen and how to deal with Daniel’s asthma.

But there was no way he was going to be changing diapers and feeding baby food or whatever. That was way out of his comfort zone.

“Listen, Dylan,” he told him flat out, “I’m not sure if I can handle that kind of responsibility.” This was turning out to be the worst job interview of his life. And there had been a lot of bad ones in the past.

“I know, I know,” Dylan was quick to jump in, “it might seem like a lot at first, trust me I never thought I could handle a baby until one was thrown at my doorstep, but it will be a lot easier than you think.”

Merritt raised an eyebrow, “Are you trying to convince me to take a job? I thought this sort of thing normally went the other way around.”

“It’s just,” Dylan sighed, running a hand through a mess of curly black hair, “these kids are really special. And I think that they need someone younger to take care of them. They aren’t very trusting of adults, and sadly they have good reasons to be.”

Merritt nodded in understanding. Most people in the small town knew about how single Dylan Rhodes turned into a father. Daniel had been left on the town sheriff’s doorstep and when Dylan left to go to work, he saw him wrapped in a blanket with a note asking for him to take care of the boy. It was presumed that the mother must still be living in the town, but no one had ever come to claim him yet. Merritt thought for sure that must be a real blow to the kid’s self esteem.

Henley was brought into Dylan’s custody when she was in kindergarten and her parents were busted for running a drug operation in their house in New York City. When Dylan found out about the young girl that was now going to be put in the foster system, he requested to take her in. The rest was history and it turned out that Dylan was taking real good care of her.

It was Jack’s origin story that Merritt didn’t know much about. All he knew was that he had very recently been brought into the Rhodes household under some pretty severe circumstances that Dylan didn’t really feel the need to share with the town.

Thinking about those situations, Merritt really felt for those kids. His own family life was pretty rough. His parents didn’t care much about him or his brother. Chase on his own was torture enough: stealing money, using Merritt as a punching bag, and getting him in trouble at school. 

Maybe it was worth it after all to take this crazy job. He did need the money after all…

It was almost as if his mouth was moving independent of the warnings from his brain when he said out loud, much to his surprise, “Okay, I’ll do it.”


End file.
